Clare citizens mobilise against household charge

IRELAND has been so accepting of austerity that possibly the best-known protest in the country is the weekly after-mass march in the tiny Cork village of Ballyhea, but it now looks like some organised opposition to the household charge has emerged.

On Monday night in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, approximately 150-200 people, too many for the seating provided, were given a fairly coherent vision of how the charge might be rendered ineffective, at a meeting which was addressed by two TDs.
Basically, the organisers want the public to defy the registration deadline for the charge of March 31. They feel that if a sizeable amount do that, the charge could become impossible to implement.
People Before Profit TD Joan Collins, and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party spoke to Monday night’s crowd, while organisers distributed stickers for people to put on the car and house windows and asked people to pay €5 to join the campaign.
Shannon resident Chris Quinn has become involved in the campaign in Clare and at the outset of the meeting he claimed that people’s homes have become “just a target for Government”.
He said he was definitely not going to be paying the charge. “They can do what they like, fine me, take me to court, lock me up for a week, it’s fine with me.”
Speaking to the audience, Ms Collins said that the Taoiseach had said in 1994 that it was both immoral and unjust to tax the family home.
She said that after the €100 charge is introduced the amount will increase quickly in the coming years. Ms Collins said that the moment has arrived for people to say, “We’re not taking this, we have enough of this and we’re telling you we’re not paying this unjust tax.”
She said that “unjust laws are made to be broken” and she pointed to several examples in Irish history.
Ms Collins said that if a significantly large amount of householders don’t sign up, then the tax will become unenforceable. “If a million people are not paying it then there isn’t a hope in hell of tracking them down.”
She said that at the moment, the movement is asking people not to pay the charge by St Patrick’s Day, and if, after this, the campaign can be brought into April it “then becomes Mr Hogan’s problem”.
Such resistance will also “let the troika know were not going to take it lying down.”
Mr Higgins said that the Commission on Taxation and the ESRI are both of the view that the charge should be far higher, but he said he was hopeful that the public will mobilise to fight it. With regard to the ongoing austerity, he said, “For three-and-a-half years people didn’t see how they could fight it or have the weapons to fight it.”
He also said that Trade Union leaders had “gone into hiding” instead of leading a fight back against cuts and tax increases.
The next few weeks are set to see booklets distributed to homes, he said. “It’s expected that in a week or two a book will sent to every home from Minister Hogan and the Department threatening fire and brimstone.”
He urged people not to be intimidated by threats and said that if large numbers don’t sign up in the coming weeks, the whole idea will be under threat.
“If half a million, three quarters of a million or a million are not registered by St Patrick’s Day; any of these cohorts will be a massive statement of opposition.”
The Socialist TD said that while it normally takes years to make history, in this instance it can be done in two months.
He said that if people are taken to court they would be carried in and out on their supporters shoulders and that protestors would “put it up to the judges” and put TDs under “massive pressure”.
Success in the boycott would be a blow against “the arrogant bureaucracy of the EU” he claimed, and would also give succour to people in other countries who are feeling the full effects of austerity.